An ambivalent alliance: Hostile and benevolent sexism as complementary justifications for gender inequality.

The equation of prejudice with antipathy is challenged by recent research on sexism. Benevolent sexism (a subjectively favorable, chivalrous ideology that offers protection and affection to women who embrace conventional roles) coexists with hostile sexism (antipathy toward women who are viewed as usurping men's power). The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, first validated in U.S. samples, has been administered to over 15,000 men and women in 19 nations. Hostile and benevolent sexism are complementary, cross-culturally prevalent ideologies, both of which predict gender inequality. Women, as compared with men, consistently reject hostile sexism but often endorse benevolent sexism (especially in the most sexist cultures). By rewarding women for conforming to a patriarchal status quo, benevolent sexism inhibits gender equality. More generally, affect toward minority groups is often ambivalent, but subjectively positive stereotypes are not necessarily benign. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The costs and benefits of sexism: Resistance to influence during relationship conflict.

This study tested whether men's and women's hostile sexism (HS) and benevolent sexism (BS) were associated with resistance to influence in couples' conflict interactions. Ninety-one heterosexual couples were recorded while trying to produce desired changes in each other. Participants reviewed their discussions and rated how open they were to their partner's perspective. Objective coders also rated the extent to which each partner exhibited hostile communication. We tested key principles arising from ambivalent sexism theory (Glick & Fiske, 1996). First, BS is necessary because mutual interdependence reduces the power of HS to influence women within intimate relationships. We found that the more men endorsed HS, the less open and more hostile both partners were, and the less successful their discussions were in producing desired change. Second, BS reduces the threat of women's dyadic power by revering and respecting women's interpersonal roles while restricting women's influence outside the relationship domain. We found that men who expressed higher agreement with BS were more open to their partners' influence and behaved with less hostility, and their discussions were more successful. These relationship benefits illustrate why BS is effective at disarming women's resistance to wider inequalities. These benefits, however, were contingent on men adopting BS attitudes. When women strongly endorsed BS but their male partner did not, women were less open, behaved with greater hostility, and perceived their discussions as less successful. These results indicate that, because BS increases the stakes within the relationship domain, women who endorse BS will react more negatively when their expectations are not realized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bad but Bold: Ambivalent Attitudes Toward Men Predict Gender Inequality in 16 Nations.

A 16-nation study involving 8,360 participants revealed that hostile and benevolent attitudes toward men, assessed by the Ambivalence Toward Men Inventory (P. Click & S.T. Fiske, 1999), were (a) reliably measured across cultures, (b) positively correlated (for men and women, within samples and across nations) with each other and with hostile and benevolent sexism toward women (Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, P. Click & S.T. Fiske, 1996), and (c) negatively correlated with gender equality in cross-national comparisons. Stereotype measures indicated that men were viewed as having less positively valenced but more powerful traits than women. The authors argue that hostile as well as benevolent attitudes toward men reflect and support gender inequality by characterizing men as being designed for dominance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 97(4) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2009-16971-002). The affiliation for William von Hippel is incorrect. The affiliation should have been University of Queensland.] Social identity threat is the notion that one of a person’s many social identities may be at risk of being devalued in a particular context (C. M. Steele, S. J. Spencer, & J. Aronson, 2002). The authors suggest that in domains in which women are already negatively stereotyped, interacting with a sexist man can trigger social identity threat, undermining women’s performance. In Study 1, male engineering students who scored highly on a subtle measure of sexism behaved in a dominant and sexually interested way toward an ostensible female classmate. In Studies 2 and 3, female engineering students who interacted with such sexist men, or with confederates trained to behave in the same way, performed worse on an engineering test than did women who interacted with nonsexist men. Study 4 replicated this finding and showed that women’s underperformance did not extend to an English test, an area in which women are not negatively stereotyped. Study 5 showed that interacting with sexist men leads women to suppress concerns about gender stereotypes, an established mechanism of stereotype threat. Discussion addresses implications for social identity threat and for women’s performance in school and at work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexism and racism: Old-fashioned and modern prejudices.

Prejudice and discrimination against women has become increasingly subtle and covert (N. V. Benokraitis & J. R. Feagin, 1986). Unlike research on racism, little research about prejudice and discrimination against women has explicitly examined beliefs underlying this more modern form of sexism. Support was found for a distinction between old-fashioned and modern beliefs about women similar to results that have been presented for racism (J. B. McConahay, 1986; D. O. Sears, 1988). The former is characterized by endorsement of traditional gender roles, differential treatment of women and men, and stereotypes about lesser female competence. Like modern racism, modern sexism is characterized by the denial of continued discrimination, antagonism toward women's demands, and lack of support for policies designed to help women (for example, in education and work). Research that compares factor structures of old-fashioned and modern sexism and racism and that validates our modern sexism scale is presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of stranger and acquaintance rape: The role of benevolent and hostile sexism in victim blame and rape proclivity.

In Studies 1 and 2, after reading an acquaintance-rape but not a stranger-rape scenario, higher benevolent sexist but not hostile sexist participants blamed the victim significantly more. In Study 2, higher hostile sexist but not benevolent sexist male participants showed significantly greater proclivity to commit acquaintance (but not stranger) rape. Studies 3 and 4 supported the hypothesis that the effects of benevolent sexism and hostile sexism are mediated by different perceptions of the victim, as behaving inappropriately and as really wanting sex with the rapist. These findings show that benevolent sexism and hostile sexism underpin different assumptions about women that generate sexist reactions toward rape victims. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

“Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers”: Correction.

Reports an error in "Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers" by Christine Logel, Gregory M. Walton, Steven J. Spencer, Emma C. Iserman, William von Hippel and Amy E. Bell (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2009[Jun], Vol 96[6], 1089-1103). The affiliation for William von Hippel is incorrect. The affiliation should have been University of Queensland. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2009-07435-001.) Social identity threat is the notion that one of a person’s many social identities may be at risk of being devalued in a particular context (C. M. Steele, S. J. Spencer, & J. Aronson, 2002). The authors suggest that in domains in which women are already negatively stereotyped, interacting with a sexist man can trigger social identity threat, undermining women’s performance. In Study 1, male engineering students who scored highly on a subtle measure of sexism behaved in a dominant and sexually interested way toward an ostensible female classmate. In Studies 2 and 3, female engineering students who interacted with such sexist men, or with confederates trained to behave in the same way, performed worse on an engineering test than did women who interacted with nonsexist men. Study 4 replicated this finding and showed that women’s underperformance did not extend to an English test, an area in which women are not negatively stereotyped. Study 5 showed that interacting with sexist men leads women to suppress concerns about gender stereotypes, an established mechanism of stereotype threat. Discussion addresses implications for social identity threat and for women’s performance in school and at work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Math = male, me = female, therefore math ≠ me.

College students, especially women, demonstrated negativity toward math and science relative to arts and language on implicit measures. Group membership (being female), group identity (self = female), and gender stereotypes (math = male) were related to attitudes and identification with mathematics. Stronger implicit math = male stereotypes corresponded with more negative implicit and explicit math attitudes for women but more positive attitudes for men. Associating the self with female and math with male made it difficult for women, even women who had selected math-intensive majors, to associate math with the self. These results point to the opportunities and constraints on personal preferences that derive from membership in social groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-subjugation among women: Exposure to sexist ideology, self-objectification, and the protective function of the need to avoid closure.

Despite extensive evidence confirming the negative consequences of self-objectification, direct experimental evidence concerning its environmental antecedents is scarce. Incidental exposure to sexist cues was employed in 3 experiments to investigate its effect on self-objectification variables. Consistent with system justification theory, exposure to benevolent and complementary forms of sexism, but not hostile or no sexism, increased state self-objectification, self-surveillance, and body shame among women but not men in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, we replicated these effects and demonstrated that they are specific to self-objectification and not due to a more general self-focus. In addition, following exposure to benevolent sexism only, women planned more future behaviors pertaining to appearance management than did men; this effect was mediated by self-surveillance and body shame. Experiment 3 revealed that the need to avoid closure might afford women some protection against self-objectification in the context of sexist ideology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotherapy with older women: Ageism and sexism in traditional practice.

Based on the guidelines suggested by the American Psychiatric Association in reference to young women, the role of sexism in the ageist attitudes and practices of traditional psychotherapists is discussed. Sexism is seen as a major component in the neglect of the elderly by mental health professionals. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Complainant behavioral tone, ambivalent sexism, and perceptions of sexual harassment.

Previous research has examined the impact of the law on decisions made about social sexual interactions in the workplace in the context of a variety of individual difference variables including gender of the observer and sexist attitudes, as well as situational factors including legal standard and prior exposure to aggressive and submissive complainants. The current study continued this line of inquiry by testing whether hostile or benevolent sexist attitudes behaved differently under manipulated exposure to aggressive and submissive complainants. Full-time workers watched 1 videotape in which aggressive, submissive, or neutral (i.e., businesslike) women complained that male coworkers sexually harassed them; then, participants viewed a second complainant who always acted in a neutral behavioral tone. In the first case, participants high in hostile sexism who took a reasonable person perspective (but not those with a reasonable woman point of view) and all men who viewed an aggressive complainant found less evidence of harassment. With the second set of allegations, female workers who were exposed to a submissive complainant in the first case found less evidence of harassment against the neutral complainant, suggesting that exposure to a submissive complainant triggered some type of victim blaming in female workers. Policy and training implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Television and adolescents' sex role stereotypes: A longitudinal study.

A 2-yr study examined the relationship between the TV viewing and sex-role stereotypes of 349 6th–9th graders. Among females, the amount of TV viewing was significantly associated with sexism scores 1 yr later, over and above the effects of demographic controls and early sexism levels. There was, however, no evidence that females' degree of sex-typing subsequently led to TV viewing. For males, these patterns were precisely the reverse: TV had no longitudinal impact on sex-role attitudes, but sexism foreshadowed greater viewing. Among females, the effect of TV increased with social class. Both lower-class females and males as a group were more sexist regardless of viewing levels. This suggests that TV viewing is most likely to make a difference among those who are otherwise least likely to hold traditional sex-role views. TV's impact may thus reflect a convergence of disparate perspectives into a more homogeneous "mainstream" commonality of outlooks. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The utility of open-ended measures to assess intergroup ambivalence.

Demonstrated the utility of open-ended measures for assessing intergroup ambivalence. 42 Canadian undergraduates completed open-ended measures of stereotypes (beliefs about characteristics of group members), symbolic beliefs (beliefs that group members promote or threaten cherished values), and emotions, in order to determine their degree of ambivalence toward Native Peoples, French Canadians, Oriental Immigrants, and Canadians. Ss also completed an attitude measure assessing their overall evaluations of the groups. Examination and comparison of these measures revealed findings consistent with the following theoretical expectations: (1) the positive and negative dimensions were not highly negatively correlated, (2) ambivalence toward the groups differed, and (3) ambivalence toward the groups was not highly correlated. Results support the open-ended measure of ambivalence. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exposure to Benevolent Sexism and Complementary Gender Stereotypes: Consequences for Specific and Diffuse Forms of System Justification.

Many have suggested that complementary gender stereotypes of men as agentic (but not communal) and women as communal (but not agentic) serve to increase system justification, but direct experimental support has been lacking. The authors exposed people to specific types of gender-related beliefs and subsequently asked them to complete measures of gender-specific or diffuse system justification. In Studies 1 and 2, activating (a) communal or complementary (communal + agentic) gender stereotypes or (b) benevolent or complementary (benevolent + hostile) sexist items increased support for the status quo among women. In Study 3, activating stereotypes of men as agentic also increased system justification among men and women, but only when women's characteristics were associated with higher status. Results suggest that complementary stereotypes psychologically offset the one-sided advantage of any single group and contribute to an image of society in which everyone benefits through a balanced dispersion of benefits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retraining attitudes and stereotypes to affect motivation and cognitive capacity under stereotype threat.

In a series of experiments, a retraining paradigm was used to test the effects of attitudes and stereotypes on individuals' motivation and cognitive capacity in stereotype-threatening contexts. Women trained to have a more positive math attitude exhibited increased math motivation (Study 1). This effect was not observed for men but was magnified among women when negative stereotypes were either primed subtly (Study 2) or indirectly reinforced (Study 3). Although attitudes had no effect on working memory capacity, women retrained to associate their gender with being good at math exhibited increased working memory capacity (Studies 3 and 4), which in turn mediated increased math performance (Study 4) in a stereotype-threatening context. Results suggest that although positive attitudes can motivate stigmatized individuals to engage with threatening domains, stereotypes need to be retrained to give them the cognitive capacity critical for success. Implications for interventions to reduce stereotype threat are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Kaplan's view of DSM-III: The data revisited.

Comments on M. Kaplan's (see record 1984-06847-001) assertions of sexist biases in DSM-III, arguing that her reasoning is fallacious but persuasive because of its evocative appeal. It is further argued that Kaplan misinterpreted data reported by I. Broverman et al (see record 1970-06951-001), which she acknowledged as the only source of empirical support for her arguments. It is contended that Kaplan's claim that there is sexism because more women than men receive certain diagnoses (e.g., histrionic, dependent) indicates her confusion of the etiology of a possible sex-related disorder with the issue of sexism in the diagnostic criteria. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The “model minority myth”: Internalized racialism of positive stereotypes as correlates of psychological distress, and attitudes toward help-seeking.

Stereotypes associated with Asian Americans (model minority group) are, at times, positive. Endorsement of these stereotypes (i.e., internalized racialism) might contribute to Asian's distress and their attitudes toward seeking services. The purpose of this study was to use the theory of “status-based rejection sensitivity” as a way to examine the relationship between internalized racialism (i.e., endorsement and/or internalization of positive Asian stereotypes) and psychological distress, and attitudes toward help-seeking among 291 Asian Americans. Results indicated that higher levels of endorsement of positive Asian stereotypes were related to higher levels of psychological distress and more negative attitudes toward help-seeking. No evidence was found for the moderating roles of internalized racialism in the endorsement of positive Asian stereotypes–distress/help-seeking links. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accuracy of attitude stereotypes: The case of inferences based on gender.

Three studies were undertaken to assess the accuracy of people's estimates of the attitudes of men and women. In Exp 1, attitudes of male and female college students were assessed on a broad range of social and political issues. In Exp 2, 30 male and 30 female college students estimated the attitudes of typical males and females on the same statements. These estimates were used to select a set of stereotypic male statements and a set of stereotypic female statements. In Exp 3, 44 male and 53 female college students estimated the attitudes of male and female students on the 2 sets of statements. Results of the 1st 2 studies indicated that both men and women expected larger gender differences in attitudes than actually exist. In the 3rd study, this result was confirmed and it was found that people were least accurate in their estimates of the attitudes of men. Partial support was obtained for the hypothesis that in-group stereotypes would be more accurate than out-group stereotypes. Men were more accurate than women in estimating the attitudes of men but men and women were equally accurate in estimating the attitudes of women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Appartenances nationales et orientations d'acculturation au Québec.

This study proposes a new scale to monitor concepts of national belonging and assesses acculturation attitudes toward immigrants from France, Arab Muslim immigrants and Québec-based anglophone Canadians. Francophone Québécois undergraduates (N=265) completed the National Belonging Scale (NBS) and the Host Community Acculturation Scale (HCAS). Respondents strongly endorsed two main types of national belonging: civic and ethnic. Endorsement of Canadian national belonging was very weak. Acculturation results showed that undergraduates displayed more individualistic and integrationist orientations toward "valued" immigrants from France than toward "less valued" Arab Muslim immigrants. Acculturation attitudes toward anglophone Canadians fell between those held toward French immigrants and Arab Muslims, reflecting francophone Québécois ambivalence toward the anglophone minority of Québec. Results obtained on psychological correlates supported the construct validity of both the NBS and the HCAS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)